125 FAMILIES ADOPTED, 92 STILL NEED HELP
PRIESTS TELL OF PEOPLE'S GRATITUDE
"Anything you send will be gladly welcomed"
writes Poor Mother
The "Catholic Herald " family adoption plan, first publicised at the beginning of December, has succeeded beyond expectation.
One hundred and three families in urgent need have so far been adopted by other Catholic families in more comfortable circumstances.
After these last twenty-two applicants have been satisfied there still remain 92 families whose names have been supplied to us from reliable sources and whose needs cry out for easing.
"Dole Sends Him Away"
Here is a letter received by an adopter from a Liverpool mother. The facts are typical of many of the " adopted " families.
"Dear Wm — " I received your letter the other day. I was so pleased I really don't know how to express My feelings. was in bed getting over the 'flu. I was feeling very depressed and I think God sent that letter along—it seemed that all my struggling is not in vain.
"My husband is away at sea. I miss him terribly with all these children, but you see the dole sends him away.
"I get £2 8s. when he is home, and 358. when he goes away; that is all he csim leave. I have seven children, the eldest is a girl of 10. Thank God they are all healthy and strong. " I am sorry to keep you waiting for an answer. Anything you send will be gladly welcomed, whether small or large. "My husband will be away until next April. I haven't anybody to do a thing for me. I hope all your little family is well. I hope to be writing again soon. Goodnight and God bless you.
"Yours sincerely,
Month's Holiday—All Expenses Paid
A Manchester priest has written to tell us of the deep gratitude that adopted fee-nines in his parish feel towards their benefactors.
He says: "I was in one house to-day where a charming letter and a good parcel had just arrived. The sorely tired mother of eight children was calling down blessings on the kind lady who had adopted her family. And last week a man Showed me with great pride a delightful letter which his wife had received from somebody as the result of the C.H. adoption scheme."
The same priest informs us that In another family the mother. who has been in a state of continual Illness since
a severe operation, has been given a month's holiday In the country by an adopter, with all expenses paid. This adopter has also provided money that the family may be well looked after in the mother's absence, and arranged fen one or two of the family to visit the mother one week-end during the holiday.
A parish priest in an economically dead Midland area says that he recently visited the many families of his parish who had been adopted. Everywhere he found new happiness and confidence. The feeling of isolation, of absolute unimportance. was gone from the peoplewho had found adopters.
28/a Week U.A.B.
Where, in some cases, there have been hardly any facts known of a family in need of adoption beyond their recommendation from the parish priest, would-be adopters have written to the family direct, asking for details Of the most urgent requirements. The following is from the reply of the father of a Lancashire family to such an enquiry:
"1 ant very much in need of help, an am on the U.A.B. and get Li 8s. a week to keep myself and two boys. My rent is Se. 4d. a week and I pay 25. 9d. a week for coal."
That is one family. By the end of this week altogether one hundred and twenty-five such families (most of them, however, with five or six children) will have been adopted, will have been assured of occasional parcels of clothes (clean and well mended), food and small essential luxuries like cigarettes or chocolates, and, most important, will have the knowledge through friendly personal contact of letter or visit that the corporate unity of Catholicism is a reality, that they are more than figures in a civil servant's collection of statistics, that they have friends, bound to them by Faith and willing to help and Make sacrifice for them.
Block Capitals, Please !
Two groups each of 125 famines will have been put into more natural, more Christian relationship with each other But there will still be 92 families waiting to be adopted. Perhaps they will not have to wait long. It depends on 92 people samewhere unknown. If you would like to be one of the 92 adopters, the CATHOLIC livieste will gladly send particulars of a family. '
It Is some help to those on the C.H. operating the scheme if applicants for families will write their name and address in block capitals, or better still enclose a stamped addressed envelope.
Applications should be addressed: Family Adoption,
CATHOLIC HERALD,
67, Fleet-street, E.C.4.
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